AMD to debut Barcelona on September 10 - report

Chicago (IL) – According to a report published by the Inquirer, AMD will be introducing its first quad-core processor on September 10.

If the Inquirer is right, then AMD is still keeping its latest promise to introduce the processor in Q3, while missing the original target of a mid-2007 launch. However, we were told by the company that at the time of the official announcement server vendors will actually be ready to ship Barcelona processors, which means that AMD is likely to be shipping the CPU for revenue right now.

Information received by the Inquirer indicates that Barcelona will ship as models 2348 (1.9 GHz) and 2350 (2.0 GHz) initially, with faster versions up to 2.4 GHz scheduled to follow in October.

Barcelona will be substantially cheaper than many may have expected – with prices of $320 for the 2348 and $390 for the 2350 – which is about in line with the current 2.4 and 2.6 GHz dual-core Rev-F Opterons. If we believe the Inquirer, then AMD will continue the price war with Intel, as the rival’s comparable quad-core Xeons are considerably more expensive at this time : The 1.86 GHz Xeon E5320 is priced at $455 and the 2.0 GHz E5335 at $690.

The October versions of Barcelona will go up in price sharply, according to the Inquirer. The 2352 (2.1 GHz) will be available for $450, the 2354 (2.2 GHz) for $610, the 2356 (2.3 GHz) for $795 and the 2358 (2.4 GHz) for $1180. AMD may also not be able to beat Intel’s quad-cores in terms of power consumption. The 2348 – 2356 are rated at a thermal design power of 95 watts, the 2358 at 120 watts, while Intel currently offers 50 watt, 80 watt and 120 watt versions of the 5300 series CPUs.

The launch date of Barcelona also sheds some light on the possible introduction of the Phenom desktop quad-core CPU. Sources told TG Daily that there will be a 60 to 90 day delay until Phenom will arrive – which means mid-November at the earliest and mid-December at the latest.